Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, April 11, 2001

A Livermore woman apparently had a bone to pick during the weekend with supermarket employees who refused to give her more free Easter hams than she was due.

The customer at a Ralphs supermarket "got upset because the manager would not give her more than one ham," said Lt. Scott Trudeau of the Livermore Police Department. "When the manager tried to escort her out, she pinned him against the wall with her cart."

The supermarket chain is giving free bone-in hams to customers with a Ralphs card who spend $50 or more in one trip. Rachael Cheroti, police say, came to collect on a month's worth of shopping.

On Saturday evening, Cheroti allegedly demanded -- and got -- a ham, despite having just bought only $48 in groceries. Police say she then demanded more, claiming she spends about $400 a month at the store, and the manager refused.

Things went from bad to worse after the shopping cart maneuver, police said,

and the manager and Cheroti ended up grappling on the floor. Another worker and a customer jumped in to pull her off. Cheroti then fell on an officer who arrived moments later, tearing ligaments in his left hand, Trudeau said.

The Ralphs workers at the East Stanley Boulevard location got a little frazzled by the altercation but weren't injured. The officer, however, will be off for a few weeks, Trudeau said.

A butcher at another Ralphs in nearby Dublin -- Arthur, who wouldn't give his last name -- said the giveaway of fully cooked hams helped make customers feel better after they filled up their carts and empty their wallets.

While accounting for the ham stock isn't precise, Arthur said the Dublin store had given away four or five pallets of ham last week. Each pallet holds about 25 boxes, and each box contains between four and six hams.

"We do give away quite a lot," said Terry O'Neil, spokesman for the chain, based in Compton, which started the ham handout this year. "I can't tell you what may happen next year."

Cheroti, 33, was arrested and later charged with two misdemeanor counts of battery and one misdemeanor count of assault on an officer. She is being held on $15,000 bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and will enter a plea in Superior Court in Pleasanton today.

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